What’s the Language of the People of Paradise? (It’s not what you’re probably thinking…)

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah -Rahimahullah- was asked:

‘In what language will the people be spoken to on the Day of Resurrection? Will Allah speak to the people in Arabic? Is it true that the language of the people of Hell-fire will be Persian and the language of the people of Paradise will be Arabic?’

He (may Allah have mercy on him) answered:‘
All praise belongs to Allah ﷻ the Lord of all the worlds, it is not known in what language the people will be spoken to on that day, nor in which language they will hear the address of the Lord –ﷻ because Allah ﷻ did not inform us of anything about this, nor did His Messenger ﷺ.

It is not authentic that Persian is the language of the people of the Hellfire or that Arabic is the language of the people who will be in eternal blessing.

We do not know of a difference of opinion between the Companions Radi Allahu anhum; rather all of them refrained from this (conjecture), because speaking about these types of things is from futile speech… However, there occurred a discussion between people who came later so some of them said that: “the people will converse in Arabic.” Others said: “‘No, the people of Hellfire will reply in Persian and it is their language in Hellfire.’”

Others said: “They will converse with Syriac (an Eastern Aramaic language) because it is the language of Adam and from it all other languages branched off.’”

Others said: ‘”No, the people of Paradise will speak Arabic.”
’
There is no (evidential) basis for any of these opinions by those who hold them, neither intellectual nor transmitted. Rather, it is a claim devoid of evidence and Allah – ﷻ is most Knowledgeable and most Just.’

[Taken from ‘Majmoo’ Fataawa’ 4/300-301]

So there you have it! The truth of the matter is that the only way to know about anything from the Unseen is through revelation from Allah. If Allah and His Messenger ﷺ didn’t inform us about what the languages of Jannah and Naar are, then there is no other way to know. So we should not engage in discussing these things since we will never know the answer – not in this life, anyway. What is most important, however, is that we do the deeds that lead us to Jannah inshAllah.

May Allah make us all of the people of Paradise. Amin.

Footnote

Adapted from Abdurrahman.org